2020 Update

I think I speak for everyone when I say 2020 has been difficult. My 2020 saw a second hiatus of sorts as I was diagnosed with stomach cancer on January 2nd. Much of my year was taken up with surgery, set backs, treatment, and recovery. But I'm doing well now and some of my fish made it through that process with me. I also recently set up more tanks, attended the October WAKO meeting, visited Gary Greenwood, and this past week visited Jeff Michels of Aquatic Clarity to get more fish. (yes, masks and social distancing were observed!)

Apistogramma cacatuoides Triple Red did pretty well through the year, they even spawned for me but I wasn't in any shape to pull the fry and raise them up. The male recently died and I picked up another pair. The trio is already getting along great and I really like the Paracheirodon simulans with them. I'm happy with the tank setup as well and hopefully they'll spawn very soon.

Getting some more dwarf cichlids was a priority for me, both from West Africa and South America. This pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus has settled in very quickly and are actively hunting for food and displaying. It's a stunning fish that often gets overlooked. They're sharing tank space with Fundulopanchax nigerianus Misaje as well. 

Epiplatys are a group of West African killifish that don't get enough attention, so they're something I'm hoping to focus on a bit more. I picked up a new pair of E. dageti this week, a pair of E. chaperi sheljuzhkoi before my surgery, and I still have E. fasciolatus tototaensis from last year's WAKO show. One of the things I've noticed about all of these is that they happily eat nearly anything. The E. chaperi are wild caught and eat just as readily as the two captive raised ones. They get fruit flies, dried krill, Repashy gel food, frozen bloodworms and mysis, flakes, and pellets. They eat it all with gusto and produce enough eggs on the varied diet.  

Splash tetras, Pyrrhulina spilota, are something I've always liked but never kept. Jeff had what appears to be a pair left, so I'm going to hopefully entice them to breed. I've never kept many Corydoras either, so I picked up a nice group of C. adolfoi too. They're sharing a tank. 

Despite having plenty of experience breeding them at my parent's house and our first apartment; I had all kinds of trouble at the old house breeding bettas. They often wouldn't even make bubble nests. I managed to get one spawn there and raised them up but even those fish didn't readily spawn so I gave up on them. So of course I need to try it here. So far I've had one spawn that failed, which isn't unusual for new parents; and this great crowntail has a nice nest set up. He's courting the female, hopefully they spawn in the morning. Bubble nests and courtship behavior are no problems here so far, so apparently my water is better for them. 

I did manage to breed some mouthbrooding Betta species at the old house, and I'm wanting to do more species here. I got these Betta unimaculata Muara Wahau at the WAKO show last year and still have 3 of them. They're difficult to sex, so I'm hoping I have a pair in the tank. They're eating well, so time will tell. 

I picked up Nannostomus beckfordi for dithers to go along with wild Apistogramma cacatuoides and Apistogramma iniridae. They're a delightful little tetra and I've not seen displays like this from other species in the genus I've kept. 

The blue dream shrimp I got last December are finally reproducing well. I moved them upstairs and rescaped the tank a bit (I added more branches after this shot)